by Ryan Fay
Make it nine in a row.
10th-ranked Union extended its winning streak to nine games with a 4-1 victory over top-ranked St. Cloud State Friday night at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
The winning streak ties Union's Division I era high, originally set back in 2010-2011. The loss ended St. Cloud State's seven game unbeaten streak (6-0-1).
Union (12-3-2) took control of the game early behind two power play goals. Max Novak opened the scoring by deflecting a Mat Bodie wrister that gave the Dutchmen a 1-0 lead at 15:01 of the first period.
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| Union's Michael Vecchione in action at SCSU Friday (credit: Tom Nelson/SCSU) |
"[It] was total goalie interference," he said after the game. "It's plain as day in every interpretation I've seen as long as I've been in hockey and what we're supposed to call. How that's missed, I have no idea. I was told something completely different. I was told that our guy came out of the crease. He was in the crease. It was total contact to the goalie."
The Huskies came to life in the second, outshooting the Dutchmen 15-9. Joey Benik sliced the lead in half on the power play when his screen-aided slapshot eluded Union goaltender Alex Sakellaropoulos at 10:29. It was the lone goal against Sakellaropoulos, who finished with a career-high 34 saves.
St. Cloud (11-2-2) had the Dutchmen reeling for the rest of the period.
"We started moving our legs and winning battles," Motzko said. "We put pressure, drew a penalty finally, and scored on the power play."
But any momentum from the second period didn't carry over into the third. Bodie, who assisted on both first period goals, quickly pushed the Union lead to 3-1 with a long-range wrister just 46 seconds into the frame.
Motzko replaced goaltender Ryan Faragher at 8:40 of the third after the netminder matched his season-high with three goals allowed.
Nick Cruice's rocket from the slot off a feed from Daniel Ciampini provided the game's final tally at 11:40.
"We have to have a lot stronger push [than what we had in the third], " Motzko said. "It never came."
The Dutchmen, who rank fourth in the country with a 25.2% power play, finished 2-of-6 on the man advantage.
"We took six penalties and five of them were really bad," Motzko said. "One shouldn't have been a penalty at all, [the one] that led to the first goal. That's two of the last three games we haven't played well."
Union head coach Rick Bennett was much happier with the performance of his team, which moves to 6-0-1 on the road and 5-0 against ranked opponents this season.
"When you're playing the No. 1 team in the country, you have to keep it simple, and I thought we did just that," Bennett said after the game. "We stayed within our system and the whole team benefited. It was just a super team win."
Union will go for the sweep at 8:07 p.m. ET Saturday.
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